While many Bethel residents were tucked indoors watching the Super Bowl on the afternoon of Feb. 9, musher Ebbe Winstrup Pedersen and his dogs were focused on reaching the Kuskokwim 300 (K300) finish line at last, more than 51 hours into the race.
With just a couple miles to go under bluebird skies in balmy 40-degree Fahrenheit temperatures, Pedersen briefly stopped in front of a fish camp on Straight Slough to let his team lap up some meltwater.
At the finish line on the Bethel riverfront, the dogs quickly plopped down in the snow to cool off as Pedersen greeted friends, volunteers, and fellow mushers.
"They never done anything [like this in] their life. This [is] the first time," Pedersen said.
Almost all of Pedersen’s team this year, his second time in the K300, consists of pups brand new to long-distance racing. For three of them, including a female named Yoda, it was their first time ever racing.
With his 17th place finish, Pedersen clinched the award given to the last musher into Bethel and across the finish lines of numerous other races, known as the Red Lantern Award. It remains a staple of the K300, representing grit, perseverance, determination, and the spirit of the legendary mid-distance race.
For the 43-year-old Pedersen, his first K300 Red Lantern Award didn’t come as a surprise.
"I have a different agenda than most of these people. They were like, racing hard … but my agenda was to get around with as many dogs that I could for … the next step is Iditarod," Pedersen said.
Pedersen was one of just three mushers to finish with 11 of his 12 dogs on the line. He plans to have all of them and a couple more harnessed up in just a couple of weeks when he’ll attempt to run them all the way to Nome.
Originally from the town of Hjørring in northern Denmark, Pedersen said that his love for dog-powered travel began on overnight skijoring trips well above the Arctic Circle in Alta, Norway.
After finishing college, he said that a Norwegian state-funded outdoor education program brought him to Alaska for the first time. Alongside skiing in the Brooks Range, Pedersen had the chance to stay in the tiny community of Takotna, located on a remote tributary of the upper Kuskokwim River. There, he became close friends with the late, legendary Takotna residents Jan and Dick Newton. For decades, the couple set the gold standard for hospitality among Iditarod checkpoints – Jan greeting mushers who had made it a third of the way to Nome with moose steaks and fresh-baked pies.
On visits back to Takotna over the years, Pederson formed a bond with Dick Newton, who died in 2021 at 91 years old.
"He was a good friend of mine, more like a grandpa to me. He got me into trapping and after a while, the school in Norway, they asked if I wanted to have the school program there," Pedersen said.
Pedersen said he has lived in Takotna off and on since 2006, and still has a cabin there. But these days he spends most of the year in Norway, where he serves as handyman and guides sled dog tours at a wilderness lodge outside of Alta. Despite the idyllic Nordic setting, he said that the call of rural Alaska is still strong.
"I have an addiction. I gotta get here once in a while, go to my cabin," Pedersen said.
If everything goes as planned, Pedersen will soon be gliding along the Iditarod Trail with his team of pups, passing through his home away from home of Takotna. After the Iditarod, he said that he’s not sure what comes next.
"Just that one time, I hope. That's what I always say, it's a one time thing. But who knows," Pedersen said.
Whether or not he continues in competitive mushing, Pedersen said that he’s excited to watch the sport grow rapidly in Norway. Much like the Alaska huskies he has grown to love and continues to work closely with, he said that his main goal for the future is to spend as much time outdoors as possible.
